He won it in dominating fashion, leading the final 23 laps and even with drivers wrecking behind him, it appeared no one would catch him on his way to the finish line at Daytona International Speedway.

Hamlin also won Saturday in the Sprint Unlimited and has cemented himself as the driver to beat Sunday in the Daytona 500.

For a driver who missed four races last year because of a compression fracture in his lower back, the ride of momentum appears as if Hamlin won at Homestead-Miami just a week or two ago instead of three months ago to end the 2013 season.

“Last year was so, so hard on us,” team owner Joe Gibbs said. “I got to tell you, Homestead was a huge deal for us. That was a big win. I think it gave everybody their confidence going into the offseason. Denny has worked extremely hard. I think we were all hungry when the year started. That certainly helps."

Speedweeks has been full of mistakes, starting Saturday when Matt Kenseth came down on Joey Logano to trigger a big accident.

Logano then admittedly might have been a little too aggressive in practice Wednesday, leading to a bunch of crumpled sheet metal and a damaged catchfence.

While the drivers might have learned that the closing rates on these cars are faster as similar incidents didn't happen Thursday, a couple of mental mistakes played a big role.

Brad Keselowski led 34 laps in his qualifying race but made a costly error, miscalculating pit road and speeding on pit road.

Then came an even a stranger mistake — a mistake by Jimmie Johnson and his team that triggered another big wreck. A miscalculation on how much fuel Johnson needed to make it to the end of the race resulted in Johnson running out of gas on the final lap, resulting in a crash that sent Clint Bowyer's car flipping.

In the Daytona 500, the same mistakes would be a lousy way to lose a shot at winning the biggest race of the season.

One weird Speedweeks

Two cars already have flipped. A side window flew off a truck in practice and nearly hit the flagman. A team radio was left on a car as it went out for practice. A pace car caught on fire. And we’re only through Thursday.

The nature of restrictor-plate racing plus the fact that it’s the first race of the year tends to contribute to weird things happening. But 2014 so far has trumped it all.

Even the flips were weird. Parker Kligerman rode a SAFER Barrier as we’ve never seen before with the nose of his car perpendicular to the fence Wednesday afternoon. Then Bowyer’s flip resulted in his car landing on all four tires and the car still driveable. Then he drove into the trioval grass and tore up the car.

“(It’s) fortunate that NASCAR has these cars where you can go crazy and race and push and shove at 200 miles an hour and generally you’re OK,” said Michael Waltrip, whose car was damaged in the wreck.

Young guys can race

While Austin Dillon and Kyle Larson have enjoyed the headlines as rookies in the Sprint Cup Series, some others showed they are no slouches on Thursday.

BK Racing driver Alex Bowman and Swan Racing driver Cole Whitt both raced their way into their first Daytona 500.

“I was throwing up, didn’t sleep — it’s so big just to me and all the naysayers out there that say I shouldn’t be in Cup yet,” said the 20-year-old Bowman, who was 11th in the Nationwide Series last year. “I know it’s a superspeedway but still I feel like that kind of proves that we as a race team can perform.”

The only rookie not to make the race was Ryan Truex, who had to go to a backup car and the team had trouble getting it up to speed for his qualifying race.

Making races tougher in 2014

Last year, several races had just 43 cars entered and there was little pressure in qualifying.

But with 49 drivers showing up for the Daytona 500, and at least one team expecting to race its first event of the season at Phoenix, there could be competition for spots deep in the grid.

Tommy Baldwin Racing’s Reed Sorenson was 35th in owner points and got the last spot in the Daytona 500. Last year, the last spot went to the team 39th in owner points.

Ryan Truex didn’t make this year’s Daytona 500 and his team was 36th in the 2013 owner standings. Truex and Eric McClure missed the Daytona 500 despite driving for teams that competed in every race last year and Joe Nemechek missed the Daytona 500 despite having qualified for 35 of 36 events last season.